After a historic regular season, ESPN College GameDay continued to find success in the postseason. The show saw a 30% increase in postseason viewership. Monday’s program ahead of the national championship drew an average 2.62 million viewers, ESPN announced. That made it the sixth-most watched postseason College GameDay in history and the second-highest viewership for […]
After a historic regular season, ESPN College GameDay continued to find success in the postseason. The show saw a 30% increase in postseason viewership.
Monday’s program ahead of the national championship drew an average 2.62 million viewers, ESPN announced. That made it the sixth-most watched postseason College GameDay in history and the second-highest viewership for this year. Only the Jan. 9 broadcast had more with 2.92 million people watching ahead of the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Peach Bowl.
SUBSCRIBE to the On3 NIL and Sports Business Newsletter
All told, the six College GameDay postseason episodes averaged 2.4 million viewers. That’s a 30% year-over-year increase.
It’s worth noting Nielsen began to use a new metric, Big Data + Panel, for tracking starting Sept. 1, which played a role in the viewership increase. But even without Big Data, College GameDay still saw a 12% increase from the previous measuring system, ESPN said.
Viewership for College GameDay surged throughout the regular season. Nine of the Top 10 most-watched episodes came before the College Football Playoff, led by a record 4.0 million for Lee Corso’s final show ahead of Ohio State vs. Texas in Week 1.
That show helped set the stage for a historic regular season as College GameDay averaged 2.7 viewers throughout the 15-week run, which includes conference championship weekend. That comes out to a 22% increase.
Of course, Pat McAfee’s kicking contest was a staple of the regular season shows. All told, he gave out $2.9 million to students who participated in the competition and $3.35 million to charity, ESPN said. Every dollar was out of McAfee’s own pocket.
After a huge regular season, the postseason arrived. It started with a live show in Norman ahead of Oklahoma’s first-round game against Alabama in the College Football Playoff, which averaged 2.62 million viewers – the 10th-most watched postseason show ever. College GameDay then headed to College Station the next day ahead of Miami at Texas A&M, and that show averaged 2.2 million.
The GameDay broadcast prior to the Peach Bowl not only led this year’s postseason for ESPN, but is also the third-most watched postseason telecast ever behind two national championship games. Only the 2013 broadcast ahead of Alabama vs. Notre Dame (3.14 million) and the 2011 show prior to Auburn vs. Oregon (2.96 million) had more during the BCS era.
College GameDay’s success comes amid a ratings surge across college football. Viewership increased by 4% year-over-year, based on Nielsen Big Data + Panel data, and the postseason also saw a 4% year-over-year increase. The biggest, of course, was Monday’s national title game as 30.1 million people watched Indiana take down Miami. It became the fourth-most watched national championship on record and had the second-highest viewership of the CFP era.
Category: General Sports
